Peak Hour Traffic
by Final Remix
Summary: [Oneshot] Just another day on just another bus... But who is this strange 'Roxas' kid that Axel ends up sitting next to, and what is he so desperate to conceal? [AkuRoku]


**For Starters:** This is a oneshot I wrote for my friend Caitlin, as an early birthday present. So yep. This is dedicated mostly to her, and also my friend Aleks, who is the nerdy source-of-all knowledge. -

**Also: **I do not own these characters. I tried to purchase them, but then I realised that I was just ranting at a guy in a mouse costume outside some place called 'Disneyland'... Plus if I did, Kingdom Hearts would be -ahem- _different_ shall we say.

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He was reading a novel when I first met him. I was on my way to school as a matter of fact, for the most part a tedious journey in a crowded bus through the city in peak hour traffic. It wasn't even that I willingly chose the seat next to him – it was the only free seat on the bus. It was probably due to how strange he seemed anyway, he had spiked-up hair as blonder than sand and a mismatch of layered shirts, belts and necklaces that had the effect of making him look like something he'd just walked out of a badly-costumed video game. Not like I was checking him out or anything. Of course not…

I guess I can't really talk about looks though; with my unevenly-spiked-back red hair the colour of flames, and my black floor-length leather coat that looks like I stole it straight from the costume-room of Neo from the Matrix movies.

Just some guy I sat next to on the bus. Nothing unusual about that, I guess.

At first I just watched him, you know? He interested me. Seemed tense, like there was something he was hiding. Naturally, I wanted to know why. I'm just that sort of person really, the type given to watching everyone, the one who would always observe the others at parties, even though I could be the centre of attention all at the same time…That guy who would know everything about everyone and yet at the same time be the one person that everyone knew nothing about. People have called me a 'manipulating, conniving bastard' before, and it's accurate, even if I'm not quite so sure it was a compliment. I like the idea of being some great puppet-master, controlling all the strings.

So naturally, this boy interested me. I swear, it wasn't that he was cute… Who do you take me for? Well, I guess he couldn't really be called a boy anyway; he was at least as old as I am. Sixteen at least, if not older.

After he had aroused my suspicions, so to speak, it was easy to spot the cautious glances around the bus. I leaned over closer to the book he was reading, trying to get a glimpse of the cover, but each time he would snap the book shut and place his gloved hands over the cover to conceal the title until he was sure that there was nobody else watching.

As I had already said, I had never seen him before that morning. At least if I had, I'd never noticed him. The labels on the books poking haphazardly out of the abused messenger bag tucked down by his feet told me he attended a different school (Twilight Town High), and that his name was Roxas Harada, so if I had seen him before I hadn't noticed him. Hard to believe, since he managed to so completely capture my attention.

But enough about that… anyone who was paying the remotest bit of attention could tell he wasn't getting the slightest bit of reading done. So being who I am, I decided on the bluntest and most direct way of gathering information.

One minute he was holding the book in his wristband-obscured hands, the cover concealed in his lap, and then the next minute he wasn't. Simple as that really… but still strange, when you think about it. How often does a complete stranger try (and succeed) to steal a book straight out of your hands?

He really didn't like that, in case you couldn't figure that out all by yourself. In fact, his first reaction was to glare daggers at me, and the second being to, quite illogically, attempt to snatch it back out of my hands. Sadly, for him at least, I was older, taller and stronger. Despite my 'girlish' waist and the fact that I am the skinniest person I know (both male and female). So the boy was fighting pretty much a loosing battle in anyone's books.

If the title didn't give it away, the description on the back certainly did. '_Wish I Was Your Lover__'_ was emblazoned in proud capitals across the cover, above a picture of two teenage (incidentally, one silver haired and the other brunette) boys rollerblading along a palm-lined beach. And at that moment I completely understood. It was like noticing or the first time all over again, and something inside me either grew or finally broke. I still don't know which.

The faint smile of amusement playing gently across my lips grew into a playful smirk. I finally understood.

I didn't realise that he was crying until I gave the book back to him, he had quickly given up any hope of snatching the book back. Well, he wasn't crying, per se, but hastily-concealed tears of desperation and perhaps even fear were still welling in his (beautiful, lapis-lazuli coloured… but you didn't hear that from me) blue eyes. Not even all that silent fuss he was making made me feel guilty. Not in the slightest. I'm just not naturally that sort of guy.

But just because I didn't feel guilty doesn't mean that I didn't feel sympathetic for him or anything. So I (innocently) threw my arm around his shoulders and leaned in slowly across the grimy seat of the bus…Until we were almost touching. And he looked at me, studying my face for my motives. But I wasn't betraying anything.

So I was leaning in close to him right. Close enough to whisper into his ear…

"So. At least I'm in good company, right?"

He paused. Confused and unsure of what I meant. I just smirked again.

"I'm Axel." I said to him, "Got it memorized?"

"Roxas." He replied.

We talked. He told me where he went to school, where he lived. A thousand details that you wouldn't normally even dream of saying to just another random on the bus. Surprisingly enough, I didn't expect to find myself becoming as (strangely) attached to him as I began to realise I was.

Until I felt it had to be said, the topic had to be breached. Somewhere up the front, another world away, the driver announced a stop two before my high school.

"Does an angel like you have a boyfriend then, Roxas?" I grinned at him, acutely and painfully aware that I sounded like a master of corny pick-up lines. I half expected him to slap me. Hell, I would have slapped me.

Roxas grinned at me, to my surprise. What can I say; it must have been love at first sight. I guess I'm just too hot for my own good sometimes, because the next thing I know it's _him_ that's pressing into _me_. I could feel my heartbeat pulsing under his hands, his breath brushing warmly over my cheek. And a sweaty palm pressed something into mine as our lips met in a kiss that was so brief it as almost painful.

I never thought that some boy on the bus would make the first move on me. Me… Axel… Of all people!

I don't honestly think that right then either of us cared that we were still on a bus – at peak hour –surrounded by old men, businesspeople, and crazy women chattering loudly and excitedly in strange languages. I pulled away from him, staring at the neat and orderly writing on the paper he had pressed into my hand

Maybe it was destiny, good Karma or something like that… Or maybe it was just plain good luck. But I fell in love with some boy on the bus.

Needless to say I was late to school, and my day wasn't that boring after that.

-- …--

One week later there was a new student transferred into my class at school. 'Roxas Harada' the teacher announced his name as. And my eyes met his across the classroom, his blue eyes burning into mine.

"Who's the kid?" my friend Marluxia asked me in a loud whisper as he caught me giving throwing Roxas a knowing smile across the room.

I glared playfully, elbowing him roughly out of his chair and onto the floor, telling him (rudely) to shift over, and gesturing for the blonde boy to sit next to me instead.

And it was the three little words that went unsaid that made all the difference.

_"I love you…"_

Who would have guessed that you could meet your One True Love on a packed inner-city bus, on just-another school day.

Yep. Must have been good Karma, I say.

Roxas smiled at me as he took his place at the desk next to me, and the world suddenly got brighter. I must have been a goddamned _saint _in this past-life of mine, to deserve someone like Roxas.

And in that whole fateful bus journey, he never did manage to read any of that book of his... Funny how things work out, isn't it?

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Thanks for reading! And feel free to review, even if its not intelligible. Or however you spell that word.

Don't worry. I promise the button won't eat your soul. It's had a very stern talking to about that.( xDD )


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